My children LOVE spaghetti. I do too! There’s something homey and comforting about a big steaming bowl of tomato sauce and noodles. For years I cheated and used the canned stuff, but I was always disappointed. This past year I finally found a recipe that was close to my liking. With a little tweaks here and there it has become a favorite.
Meatballs
1 pound venison or lean ground beef or a combination of one of these mixed with some pork sausage.
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 T dried parsley
1 T grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/8 t garlic powder
Mix all ingredients well and form into meat balls. Bake 375 degree oven about 20 minutes. *Or alternately…you may stick these in the fridge uncooked and add to crockpot or large sauce pan to cook in the sauce. Just make sure if putting them in crockpot you leave enough time for them to cook through!
Sauce
3/4 cup chopped onion
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 T olive oil
2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes OR 4 (15oz) cans diced tomatoes run through the blender. (I usually leave one can unblended to give a bit of chunkiness to the sauce)
2 t salt
1 t white sugar
1 bay leaf
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
3/4 t dried basil
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t black pepper
In a large sauce pan, saute onion and garlic in the olive oil. Cook until translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar, basil, oregano, black pepper, and bay leaf. Bring just to a slow boil stirring often. At this point I transfer the sauce to a crockpot, but if you don’t want to do this just reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 90 minutes. Stir in tomato paste (if using slow cooker do this an hour or two before serving) and meat balls simmer 30 minutes more.
**Quite often I don’t want to mess with making meatballs so I just brown the meat, leave out the bread crumbs and egg, add all the seasonings and then put it into the sauce a couple of hours before I want to serve it.
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